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To this Pisias replied: I am willing enough that
[p. 264]
every woman should have her lover; but withal, it very
much concerns Baccho to have a care how he entangles
himself in Ismenodora's wealth; lest, while we match him
with so much grandeur and magnificence, we consume him
to nothing, like tin among brass. For I must tell you, it
would be a hard matter for so young a stripling as he is,
though he should marry a plain and ordinary woman, to
keep the upper hand, like wine mixed with water. But
we see her already design superiority and command; else
why should she refuse so many suitors of great wealth and
noble extraction that court her daily, to woo herself a mere
boy, that has but newly assumed the robes of manhood
and is more fit to go to school than to marry. And therefore those husbands that are wise, without any admonition,
out of their own foresight, clip their wives' wings themselves; that is, they prune away their riches, that prompt
them to luxury and vanity, and render them inconstant and
foolish. For many times, by the help of these wings, they
soar out of their husbands' reach and fly quite away; or if
they stay at home, better it were for a man to be chained
with fetters of gold, as they chain their prisoners in Ethiopia, than to be tied to the riches of a wife.
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